Mallory Barnes

🚨🧑🏼‍🔬I’m hiring a postdoc to start in the fall! Come join our growing group here in Bloomington, Indiana.

Please apply if you’re interested in climate impacts, extreme heat and health, climate change attribution and any related topic.

indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/32142

From the map in the article, which shows county-level temperature changes, and it looks like only 1 county in Arkansas has not warmed! And I feel you, August in Indiana is also awful. I want to become a reverse snowbird ASAP.

The Trump administration is planning to terminate the missions of some of the U.S.' premier climate and Earth-observing satellites, possibly starting as soon as Oct. depending on congressional budget negotiations (1/3)

Nice piece in CNN this morning: www.cnn.com/2025/08/19/c...

Why has the Southeast U.S. warmed less than the rest of the country, and what does that mean for public perception of climate change? Includes recent findings from our group and a brief quote from me!

Public media is under threat. Our mission is more important than ever: to keep people informed, tell the truth, build bridges and hold the powerful to account. Donate now.

President Trump has issued an executive order seeking to block all federal funding to NPR. This is the latest in a series of threats to media organizations across the country.

Whatever changes this action brings, NPR’s commitment to reporting the news – without fear or favor – will never change.

“86% of global deforestation occurring between 2001 and 2022 can be attributed to crop and cattle production” #Climate #Food 🧪

A reminder that NSF is explicitly breaking the law if/when they attempt to cancel grants that focus on promoting participation in science by underrepresented groups on that basis, incl women in science programs like NSF ADVANCE. Congress expressly directs the NSF to grant funds for this purpose. 🧪

US science agency reclassifies hundreds of workers as probationary, US lawmaker says National Science Foundation administrators reclassified hundreds of employees from permanent to probationary status in violation of labor contracts, according to a U.S. lawmaker and agency employee.

We need some accountability here. Who are the administrators within the NSF who did this and under what instructions?

I believe federal FOIA regulations would applied to general communications leading up to this action if not to individual personnel decisions.

I lost my job at the National Science Foundation yesterday, along with 167 of my colleagues, including some dear friends. This was the best job I've ever had, and I thought it would be my last. The PI community has been sympathetic and supportive, without exception. I will miss working for you.

This is quite literally decimation of our scientific infrastructure. Shameful, cruel, and shortsighted.

National Science Foundation fires roughly 10% of its workforce NSF fired 168 employees, leaving the agency less equipped to fund a wide range of scientific research.

NSF fired 168 employees, leaving the agency less equipped to fund a wide range of scientific research.

Please let the GEO/EAR community know: Program Directors and Mission Support who’ve been at NSF under two years were just terminated via Zoom. Even those of us whose offer letter stated one probationary year and whose government data states “permanent”.

For goodness sake. Bleak.

Trump administration purges websites across federal health agencies Research and basic information on subjects ranging from tuberculosis surveillance to adolescent health disappeared from federal health agency websites.

Any other remote sensing folks concerned about data access? If they removing health data, climate data could be next? Are we at risk of losing access to data on the DAACS? www.npr.org/sections/sho...

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service.

“Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

Stand density and local climate drive allocation of GPP to aboveground woody biomass The partitioning of photosynthate among various forest carbon pools is a key process regulating long-term carbon sequestration, with allocation to aboveground woody biomass carbon (AGBC) in particul...

Previous research showed tree growth to be temporally decoupled from GPP, but what about biomass? Here we find that the fraction of GPP allocated each year to woody biomass widely varies across sites and years, notably as a function of climate. Shout out to Steve Kannenberg for leading this work!

National Science Foundation freezes grant review in response to Trump executive orders The National Science Foundation has canceled all grant review panels this week. It's unclear how long the pause could last.

The National Science Foundation has canceled all grant review panels this week. It's unclear how long the pause could last.

Overview of proximal remote sensing instruments at a flux tower site. Shown are three eddy-covariance towers with sonic anemometers collecting data to derive ecosystem fluxes. Shown for spectral reflectance and solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) is a hyperspectral sensor with a narrow field-of-view (FOV) and multi-directional scanning capabilities (Sections II.1 and II.2). We also show the direct emission of SIF from the forest canopy (Section II.2). For thermal infrared radiation, we show a fixed thermal camera and thermal radiation coming from the canopy (Section II.3). For microwave, we show two potential arrangements with antenna A receiving direct signals from under open-sky conditions as well as signals that are reflected from the underlying vegetated surface, and antenna B receiving a direct signal that is propagated downward through the vegetation canopy and attenuated by its moisture content (Section II.4). We also show a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) instrument emitting light to get a 3D representation of canopy structure (Section II.5). Above the forest are a drone, aircraft, and satellite to emphasize the potential of proximal remote sensing to complement observations across scales. In the inset plot, we show sample reflectance spectra for vegetation and wet soil and highlight key wavelength ranges for spectral reflectance. We also show typical SIF retrieval windows and LiDAR emission windows. Next to the reflectance spectra, we show sample radiance in the thermal infrared region, with example spectra for warm soil and cool vegetation. Finally, we show key measurement wavelength bands for microwave backscatter.

New Tansley review paper from Zoe Pierrat & friends in @newphyt.bsky.social linking proximal remote sensing with ecosystem fluxes!

Synergies and best practices for hyperspectral reflectance, SIF, thermal, microwave and lidar 🌈🌲🗼🛰️🧪
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Happy to share a new paper, "Effects of Hot Versus Dry Vapor Pressure Deficit on Ecosystem Carbon and Water Fluxes," led by the amazing Miriam Johnston w/ @mallorybarnes.bsky.social and others agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Post-doc with the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI) to work w/a team of natural and social scientists on adaptation in the Midwest in sectors that relate to the intersection of urban green infrastructure with wildlife conservation and natural resource management.

five time series of global mean surface temperature changes starting low and noisy in the 1850s - rising clearly since the 1960s - and showing 2024 was clearly the warmest.

All surface temperature products for 2024 are now live.

All show 2024 is the warmest year (very clearly).

The estimates of the change since the pre-industrial (1850-1900) are more uncertain but range from 1.46 to 1.62ºC.

It is therefore *likely* this was the first year that exceeded 1.5ºC.

Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes - Nature Climate models have long suggested that the conversion of forest to grasslands or crops could create a cooling effect, through an increase in surface albedo. But so far, no study encompassing a large ...

Great Q! Temp change from reforestation is the net result of competing mechanisms: changes in latent/sensible heat flux (cooling), and changes in albedo (warming). Research shows reforestation in northern latitudes can actually warm. More here, may be paywalled: www.nature.com/articles/nat...

It's great this paper came out around the same time as ours. The reforestation in the EUS was a combination of active tree-planting and natural forest regeneration, but the key is that the area USED to be forest. Putting trees where they are not supposed to be will do more harm than good.

Check out the “very cool” coverage of our new research in the guardian! 🌳 Discover how reforestation contributed to the EUS “warming hole” and what that means for the climate crisis.

I was just forwarded communications from Duke admins that this is true: one of the largest and most active herbaria in the United States is being closed in the middle of an extinction crisis, because Duke leadership does not wish to support the infrastructure costs.

Duke’s endowment is around $11 billion. Pass it on.

A Century of Reforestation Reduced Anthropogenic Warming in the Eastern United States <em>Earth's Future</em> is a transdisciplinary, open access AGU journal examining the state of the planet, sustainable and resilient societies, and the science of the Anthropocene.

🌳 🌡️ For my first post here, I'm thrilled to share our latest research! We show how extensive reforestation in the SE US contributed to regional cooling in the 20th century. We also highlight the potential benefits of temperate zone reforestation for local & regional climate adaptation. 🌎 💚

A Century of Reforestation Reduced Anthropogenic Warming in the Eastern United States <em>Earth's Future</em> is a transdisciplinary, open access AGU journal examining the state of the planet, sustainable and resilient societies, and the science of the Anthropocene.

New article by Mallory Barnes et al: "A Century of Reforestation Reduced Anthropogenic Warming in the Eastern United States".

It would've warmed even more last century in the eastern USA, especially during summer days, if the region's forests hadn't been regrowing.